Town officials have fielded a litany of complaints as a growing number of residents urges them to pass “quiet zones” at several of the town’s railroad crossings.

While the majority of town councilors agree with their constituents that whistle-free crossings are a good idea, the problems to be resolved are of numbers, safety and process.

Town Council Chairman Jim Hendricks said he is a proponent of quiet zones, and is tired of “punting the issue down the road.”

While he said the trains don’t usually bother him — he lives about 100 feet from the West Street crossing, and his 12-year-old son “thinks they’re kind of cool,” he said — Hendricks urged his colleagues to arrive at some sort of decision.

Among the problems the town first must solve are how many zones to enact, which crossings would be included and what additional safety equipment, if any, must be placed there.

There also is the question of how the zones would be implemented, whether through application to the Federal Railroad Authority or through municipal designation by the town itself.

Either process will get the job done, according to Councilor Melanie Sachs, but standards could be different depending on which path the town chooses.

Many of the speakers during a recent informal discussion favored the town’s designation of whistle-free zones, mostly because it likely would be quicker.

Others didn’t seem to care which process was used, as long as some progress was made to limit train noise in the wake of the Nov. 1 advent of the Amtrak Downeaster.

The list of speakers was long, and many of the comments were pointed.

David Webster, a former state legislator who lives in South Freeport, said his opinion of train whistles has changed with age.

“As romantic as trains and the horns were for me in years gone by and how much I thought that whistles were necessary, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are safety measures that can take their place,” he said. “These horns are noise pollution … they have an impact on quality of life and on mental health.”

Others cited a daily negative impact on their lives and families.

Joshua Cushing spoke on behalf of the Hilton-Garden Inn on Park Street, in the middle of the crossings at Bow and School streets. Each train passes mere feet away from the building and is a disturbance to many guests, he said.

Forty-five of the hotel’s 99 guest rooms face the tracks.

“We definitely support the Downeaster … but each passing train can be heard by everyone through the whole building,” Cushing said, citing a pile of customer comment cards that gave the hotel high marks except for the frequent noise.

The hotel provides ear plugs and other “deep sleep” kits to guests, and refunds when those measures don’t work. But 250 kits cost $1,500, and the hotel’s losses for the kits and for refunds already has doubled its 2011 total.

“I have had people from Pownal tell me, ‘I don’t know how you can live where you live,’” said West Street resident Shannon Garrity. “It’s winter and my windows are closed, so I cannot even fathom what it’s going to be like in the summer. I’m not even going to be able to have my windows open in the summer.

“I ask with everything I have that you really and truly consider quiet zones. I stand in my driveway and cry,” Garrity said. “This is my life now: I’m never going to sleep through the night.”

Chapel Street homeowner Lynda D’Amico lamented that, when friends and family visit, the train whistles often shock them.

“I love my quality of life in Freeport, I love working and living here,” D’Amico said, “but when I’ve had visitors blown up out of bed at 6:30 in the morning on a weekend, they’re very surprised that in our quiet little town we have that much noise related to a train.”

Not every speaker was flummoxed by railroad noise.

Jack Maier, a 74-year-old lifelong Freeporter, lives on Elm Street and scoffed at the people who said they support the train’s presence but decry the noise.

“I grew up in this town, I rode on that train (as a child) all the way downstream to (Boston) where I went to see the Braves and I wish I could’ve seen the Red Sox,” Maier said. “You talk about your noise, well I got I-95 behind me, I hear the (truck) brakes and the cars all night long. Thing of it is, the train is coming back. You bought next to the track and you gotta suck it in.”

Three hours after discussion started, the council decided to pursue placement of quiet zones.

More research will be done and the issue is scheduled to return before the council at its next meeting on Jan. 8.

jtleonard@timesrecord.com